God has created the world to work in a very ordered way. He is a God of order. He brought order out of nothing—out of chaos if you prefer—to establish a peaceful habitation for humankind. Adam’s job was to maintain God’s order in the garden. When he failed at that, he was cast out of the garden, and the job got a lot harder; nonetheless, as his descendants we inherited the job. God’s people are to maintain order, a God-like order, of God’s creation. It is a hard job. Just look around at the mess we must bring to order. But we were made for it.
The most important aspect of our job is raising our children to the glory of God. Proverbs 29:15 reminds us that “The rod and rebuke give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.” Children do not get here without parents bringing their birth about—that is the first proof of our part in the ordering of their lives—and God does not intend for parental involvement to stop there. If He did, He might just as well have produced children from cabbage plants or sent them in on the wings of storks and let them wander about unhindered. No, parents are responsible for ordering the lives of their children, and it doesn’t stop with providing food, shelter, and clothing either.
The proverb says that a child left to himself will bring shame to his mother. In this passage God isn’t warning about embarrassment at the grocery store even though that will surely be an early manifestation of Mom’s shame if the child is left to himself. The proverb is warning against Junior being left to figure out the world for himself so that, in the end, the mother’s shame will come from the wayward path Junior takes and the kind of faithless man he will become.
Dad and Mom, we have a very important responsibility as Christian parents. This is not a practice run. Let’s not leave our children to figure out the dangers of the world for themselves. They don’t know wrong from right yet. God ordered the world this way so that parents would pass knowledge, understanding, and wisdom to children who desperately need it. They need us to tell them when to go right and when to go left; when to close their mouths and when to speak; when to run and when to walk; when to eat and when to fast; who to trust and who to stay away from; what sin is and how to confess and repent; how to live by faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have them for so short a time in this life. We can’t leave them to figure it out for themselves, or all too soon they will be playing for the wrong team and well on their way to a bad end. Who will answer to God for that but us?
Good Christian education can support parents in guiding their children to fulfill the purpose for which they were created. Secular education by its very nature cannot be as effective at this work of training Christian children. So train up your children in the way they should go. Do not leave them to themselves. Help them find their purpose in God’s created order. At Trinitas, it is our work to help you with that. It is the work we were made for, our calling if you will, and a fulfillment of our purpose in God’s created order.
